How We Make a Full-Time Income Blogging

When most people hear that we are bloggers for a living they immediately fire back with the question, “Umm, so how do you make money blogging??” This is from sheer astonishment that a middle class family can comfortably support itself (with plenty of disposable income for extras) through such a business that doesn’t actually sell any tangible goods. And then there are the bloggers that ask us that same question, but through a totally different lens. They want to see what is working (and what isn’t) so they can perhaps apply this knowledge to their own businesses.

We’ve got the three part answer to this question down like an elevator pitch. So while there are many different ways to make a full-time income blogging, this is how we do it over at 100 Days of Real Food. Oh yes I did just plant that Montell Jordan song in your head!

How We Make Full-Time Income Blogging (x2)

First of all, I want to explain that our primary channels of income are just what we have grown into. Your site may be better suited to monetize through other methods, some of which I’ll mention at the end of this post. Diversification is key and we are still working on adding other methods, but these next three pay the bills (and then some!). It’s also worth pointing out that we have considerable expenses each month/year (staff, hosting, legal, accounting, etc.).

To make the concepts easier to understand, I’ve color coded the monetized areas of the site. To see more detail, click on the image below right to open it in another tab/window and reference it as you read along (you may need to zoom in depending on your browser).

Method #1: Network Ads

I love running network ads because once you have them setup, payment is automatic. You work so hard at writing great content (at no cost to the end-user) and promoting it, and you should get rewarded when you are able to send traffic to your site! Over the past quarter (September – November) ad network revenue has accounted for a whopping 55% of our income. Historically network ad income is low in Q1 and ramps up toward the end of the year, but regardless it is consistently our top earner.

I’m going to write a detailed post on ad network basics later, but I’ll quickly share our current setup. We have 5 network ad zones (highlighted in red) consisting of two 300 x 250’s, one 160×600, one 728×90, and one 650×300 collapsible ad zone between the blog post and comments. That last one is a gold mine! Although I’ve experimented with all sorts of configurations (and my current config is actually more complex than what I’m sharing here), for now I’ll just keep it simple and say for the most part our premium network, Federated Media, gets the first call and Adsense fills the remaining impressions.

It’s worth noting that our income really jumped when we started working with a premium network, with 82% of the last quarter’s total network ad revenue coming from this one source. We also have a lot of traffic, averaging 3.7 million pageviews per month over the same period. If you are just starting out, you won’t have enough traffic to work with a premium network, but you can work with Adsense to earn money or sell your own ads (more on this in method #3). It’s also worth noting that we’ve been careful not to “sell out” to get this higher income. We have refused to run the following:

I pulled some stats from another food blogger and estimate we forgo about $60k a year in income from that last bullet point alone. But it just wouldn’t feel right to have processed food ads on 100 Days of Real Food!

Method #2: Affiliate Ads and Links

Affiliate income is the bomb, and accounted for 23% of revenue last quarter. I love it because IT IS SO EASY! About 13% of our revenue last quarter was through Amazon (via Skimlinks at first, but now directly with an Amazon Associates account). Another 10% (net) was through affiliate relationships set up through our Sales Manager for individual products or deals. The latter requires more overhead, but is advantageous if we find a product not available on Amazon that we think our audience would really like or if we are able to work out a special discount for our readers.

On the site screenshot you’ll notice quite a few areas in yellow (indicating affiliate links). The product mentioned in the top post has affiliate links, and I’ve highlighted a few navigation links that are heavily monetized, including the recommended reading carousel. I also have a few small ad zones that I allow our Sales Manager to, um, manage. We also promote some products on Facebook, typically by mentioning a product and linking back to a post on the blog that discusses it in further detail.

Although this is not a “how to” post today, I do want to make it very clear that you’ll serve your audience and yourself best by only promoting products you personally use or can otherwise vouch for and that you feel would be of interest to your readers. You also don’t want to overdo it, and you must share appropriate disclosures (you are safe to assume any links to products on my site are affiliate links!).

For example, if you find yourself sharing products on Facebook just to earn an income, you don’t have your audience’s best interest in mind. However, if you authentically want to share something and realize you can monetize it, that’s a much better way to roll (and how it’s usually done on 100 Days of Real Food). I know that sounds like a fine line, but it’s pretty easy to listen to your gut. If you don’t take this seriously, you risk losing the credibility and trust of your audience that you have worked so hard to earn.

Method #3: Sponsorships (Sold Direct)

The areas highlighted in blue are reserved for our sponsors. We sell sponsorship packages that include ad impressions and Facebook or blog “shoutouts” to 8 sponsors or so per month. We also have some sponsored post options (about 1 per month). All of this together has resulted in 22% (net) of our revenue over the past quarter. This method allows us to connect some great sponsors with our audience, but is definitely not automatic, and carries some extra overhead:

Management – All sponsored content is tracked and limited through a monthly inventory spreadsheet, which allows our Sales Manager a little freedom in what she books each month but also ensures we don’t inundate our audience with sponsored messages all the time. There is only so much promo juice to go around each month!

Admin – Ad trafficking (this is done by our Sales Manager using Adzerk, which I set up for her).

If you are just starting out and have some direct sponsorship prospects in mind, you may want to consider charging the equivalent of about $1 CPM (cost per thousand impressions) for each ad zone. In the very beginning we used widgets to run ads, but very quickly moved to a free ad server (DFP at first, but then we moved to Adzerk because it is way easier to set up). Although you can sell by impression count, we sell ads directly on a flat rate monthly basis.

Finding Balance

When we first started placing some ads on the site we were rather haphazard with the layout. I then came across a blog that was doing quite well and got some inspiration from their layout, not to mention I got busy adding up numbers in a spreadsheet, figuring more ads = more $ (remember this was the time period when I was doing everything I could to monetize the blog and quit my corporate job). The result was the “May, 2012 layout” shown on the right. As you can see, it is very busy. Over time we found all of those ads were causing ad blindness in our readers, which doesn’t bode well for our sponsors (and repeat deals), not to mention pageload times (which hurts the user experience and SEO). So we have found balance with the current layout shown above, at least for now.

As mentioned, it is important to have multiple streams of income if you are to weather various seasonal, behavioral, and technological business cycles. You also have to find the sweet spot where you are earning money for your hard work, but not chasing people away with a gagillion blinky ads or pop ups on your site and constant requests of your audience (the “right hooks” if you are familiar with Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book).

It would seem obvious that constant giving and no taking will result in faster audience growth and conversely that trying to “cash out” too quickly or too aggressively will hinder growth and, ultimately, total earnings over time. Balance is key, and reader feedback can help you find it. I also like to look at other people’s sites and gauge my gut reactions to what I see. I then look at Lisa’s site to see how it compares, adjusting as necessary.

Future Plans to Monetize (More)

Here are some things on my to-do list to make more money and further diversify at 100 Days of Real Food.

Improve ad revenue by introducing one or two additional premium ad networks to the mix.

Raise prices for sponsored content to keep up with our recent growth (and put the data in an easily digestible format to share with sponsors so they see it is justified).

Release XXXX (top secret…still working through legal stuff).

Monetize video (we recently shot 5 videos, but I have yet to figure out how to make much money from them).

Monetize email by changing how we use our email newsletter and also adding some drip campaigns. Our email list currently costs about $600 a month to service, and we are in the red on this one. I feel this has huge upside potential.

Do What Works for You

There are tons of other ways to make money online with a blog. I know some bloggers that make the brunt of their income off of small email lists with eBooks and others that are mostly video-centric. Here are some online money making methods off the top of my head.

Drive people to your blog that showcases your real life product or service. Lisa actually does some paid speaking gigs, but it’s not a focus since it takes time away from the family. Some people sell their photography work, others provide coaching, organization services, consulting, etc.

Sell an eBook or online course in your area of expertise.

Produce a large video library and monetize it on your site and YouTube (as mentioned I’m still trying to figure that one out, but it can be done).

Focus on product reviews (which could be heavy on the affiliate marketing).

Utilize your site as a platform for a published book (Lisa has a book coming out August 2014, but I treat that as separate income from the blog).

And the Most Important Thing

Lisa didn’t start her blog to make money. She started it to help people, and that is also what drove her to increase her traffic. She had (and still has) a strong desire to get her message out. As you become successful, the numbers get bigger, and while big numbers are great, some can have kind of a hollow ring to them. But what doesn’t change is the feeling you get when you hear how you were able to help people improve their lives in some way.

So there you have it! That’s how we do it at 100 Days of Real Food, at least for right now. If you’ve monetized your blog in some way, what’s working for you? How about sharing your top methods in the comments below?

Comments

I’m so glad to have found your site tonight. I have read a lot of “how to make money blogging” articles and have found them to be aimed at new bloggers and to usually only include general information. I love that you colour coded the layout so that we could see which revenue streams you have where. I found the way you laid everything out so easy to understand and it allowed me to look objectively at where I need to be making changed to my site layout. I am planning on moving some things around on my site and reading through this, I was able to make a decision about one particular area that isn’t making money right now and that I feel looks cluttered. Thank you for that! I just started blogging seriously last February and don’t have nearly the numbers that 100 Days of Real Food does but I was able to make enough with it this year that I didn’t have to go back to work and was able to continue to stay home with my kids. For the upcoming year, my goals are a lot higher so I appreciate the information you’ve been so generous to share here and your honesty. I look forward to reading more of your suggestions!

love this post and making notes on all the ideas. I have over 20 vids on youtube that match my old ebook and am afraid I’ve just been giving all this away. Have no idea how I can rejig this situation to monetise it. I’m thinking of reworking the ebook to add more content and sell on my site instead of a cheapo kindle book. Wish I could come up with some way of having the vids involved. Any ideas? Have a wonderful 2014 you guys are amazing and thanks again Karon

Hi Karon – Depending on the nature of your vidoes, you can set up a membership site so they are behind a pay wall. Of course you then have to promote it and sell the access.

I don’t have experience with videos in ebooks, but I know Pat Flynn did it with Let Go (http://patflynn.com/letgo/) and the new Snippet format. Not sure if the new format was successful, but it’s something to look into.

So many people underestimate the power of blogging. It’s the way of the world now. These tips are great for those seeking a full-time or part-time job as a paid blogger. I appreciate you sharing your experience and ideas. I look forward to reading more from you!

Yes, echoing that the color coding is super helpful. I’m in a stage of transition since my ad network of 4 years is folding next week. I’ve yet to find a replacement that I really like, so I’m starting from the ground up, in a sense. Federated is a little tricky to get into. Currently, they require a stint with Lijit. Do you have a second choice that you’d feel comfortable recommending?

Jessica – OMG I had to redo that image like 3x! Glad to hear it was worth it. In terms of ad networks, you might try Blogher, Glam, or 350Media. The “good” networks seem to fluctuate quite a bit, and I certainly don’t know them all. I’m scheduled to do some research on premium networks soon. Just make sure you explore their constraints (exclusivity, above the fold requirements, contract duration, etc.)

Wow! This was so straightforward I feel like I just absorbed a more info in 5 minutes than I have reading a dozen other like-minded articles. Thank you! As a newbie blogger, I need straight talk type advice! I’ve added you to my daily reader and look forward to your future posts.

Erika – Thanks for the feedback. My goal is to produce the content I wish would have had when I was entering the online business world, and it’s important to be reminded of the perspective of a newbie blogger. – Jason

I’m surprised you don’t have product sales listed here. Like an eBook or something? I guess with different niches there are accepted “norms.” Like the DIY / Food / Mom Blog niches seem more ok with ads than entrepreneurship or online business blogs.

But thank you for this! Really helpful as I learn everything I can about the ads on my wife’s site and start tweaking.

Hey Donnie – Well as of this article’s publish date, we had not yet sold our own product. I know there was a lot of info covered in the Microblogger podcast interview, but I did mention why – Lisa was holding out for a “real” book (available for preorder on Amazon) due out August 26th of 2014. That’s not to diminish eBooks, we think they are great.

Fortunately we were able to negotiate with the publisher to allow a limited 2 week sale of our school lunch eGuide in January. Sales were spectacular and we learned a lot in the process.

I am including digital products in my future blog income calculator, and we definitely intend to have some more in the future on 100 Days of Real Food and here on Pro Blog School. If done right, they are a GREAT way to earn money with only a modest audience.

Hi Jason- I agree that your color coding of your page layout is very helpful! We currently use Google Adsense as our primary ad network, but we’re not very happy with the quality of the ads posted this past year. Unappetizing weight loss pictures appearing on our recipe pages. I saw your mention of a Premium network vs Google Adsense. What’s the difference and how do you run both on a page at the same time without conflicts? We have a few cooking videos on Youtube linked to our Google adsense but not big money makers so far. I would love to her more detail on how your ebook trial went. Curious on how that works.

1) Adsense: We block categories and sub-categories of unwanted ads in Adsense. Go to “Allow and Block Ads” > “General Categories” and then explore. For example, you might select “health” and block the “nutrition and dieting” sub-category. The more categories you block, the lower your CPM will be though.

Now even with blocking, some bad ads will sneak through occasionally. You can review the ads that have displayed under “Allow and Block Ads” > “Ads (Ad Review Center)”. Once you find a bad ad, you can “find related ads” and block them all. You can also block specific URLs.

2) Premium networks: If you have a lot of traffic, you can apply to a premium network like Federated Media, Blogher, Say Media, etc. These pay more like $3 CPM rather than $1 for Adsense (these are approximate numbers…they will vary by site). However, they won’t always have an ad to serve (fill rate for Adsense is usually almost 100%, but premium networks might fill more like 20-70% depending on the time of year). So most people use Adsense as the backup for their premium network. But you could run house ads as your backup instead and serve both premium networks and Adsense at the same time. You’d just have more ad zones on your site.

We earn next to nothing on Adsense on our videos. Looking into to other options, but video is kind of on the back burner for us now.

The eguide was a major success. But that’d be a whole series of blog posts to explain 🙂 Lots of moving parts.

Hi thank you for the info! I have a question, at what point is a blog big enough to consider selling ad space? How many page views per month are needed to be taken seriously, etc? I am talking about working directly with a company rather than than using affiliates, AdSense, etc. And what is a reasonable amount to charge for what size of ad? Thanks!

Hey Clarissa – Great questions. In fact, I am working on an income calculator that is going to answer a lot of questions for people looking to monetize. Keep an eye out for it and make sure you are subscribed to email updates to be alerted when it is released.

In terms of selling ads yourself, you might consider charging whatever would be the equivalent of say a $2.00 CPM. So if you have 50,000 page views a month, that would be $2 * 50,000 / 1,000 = $100. If your page views are fewer, at some point the income is so low that it’s not worth your time or your customer’s time to fool with. Now of course you could go lower or higher than a $2 CPM, but that is a ballpark.

I recommend you stick with standard ad sizes (300×250, 160×600, and 728×90 are the most popular) since your customer may already have creatives for those, but you can use custom sizes if you wish. – Jason

Well it all depends on the sponsor…there are little ones and big ones 🙂 But my guess would be around 25-50k pageviews a month since it doesn’t seem worth the overhead to handle much smaller than a $50-$100 transaction in my mind. – Jason

Jason, do you have any tips on getting Adsense approval? I’ve got 60 recipes on my website. I don’t have any traffic at all because I haven’t promoted my site at all because I was trying to wait until I had Adsense.

Hey Jim – I’m going to cover this in my next post (Ads 102), but for now I’ll say you should be driving traffic BEFORE you apply. They are going to want to see an acceptable, established site with some traffic. So you want back links, comments, a decent number of pages, be regularly adding new content, etc. – Jason

Hi great posts feel very inspired . My question is do you think it all depends on the nieche you choose for your blog ? I have an idea for a blog on a topic I’m very interested in and can do lots of reviews of products I’ve used but not sure if I’ll get the traffic numbers . Thanks stephen

1) My blog is (or will be) about “_____________.” Do you think it will be successful?

I have no idea. There are successful sites about cats. It could happen.

But if you don’t try, it won’t happen for sure. I know a lot of people attempt to make affiliate commissions on product review sites relying on SEO alone, but as Google algorithms get smarter I think that is going to become more and more difficult. So if you have a content rich site with product reviews and are intentional about building traffic over time (yes, it will take time and work), you’ll have a better shot.

See more deats on traffic building in my Blueprint for a Profitable Blog post and an upcoming traffic building post with advice from a bunch of bloggers, including some big names. Make sure you are subscribed to my email newsletter to be notified when it is published. Good luck! – Jason

I am a huge fan of your wife’s blog and now a fan of yours as well! 🙂 I love your explanation in the post about ad networks detailing the daisy chain aspect. Would you still recommend Blogher as a premium ad network even though they no longer allow you to backfill with Adsense ads? What other premium networks would you recommend (besides FM and Say)?

Hey Jenae – Thanks and sorry for the late reply; I’ve been traveling for 5 weeks. Personally I found Blogher too restricive. We have been happy with Martha’s Circle, so that may be an option for you. – Jason

Thanks for your concise and exacting information. I’m a beginning blogger and write as America’s GRUMP-iest Grandpa; and I’m having some fun blogging.

I found you on Google as I was searching for ways to authentically use the Amazon Associates program. I like buying via Amazon. So I thought as a grandparent why not recommend items that I purchase and get paid for my recommendations.

I’m glad I found your blog. I like your refreshing writing style. We’ll talk some more later.

Jason- Thank you so much for this info. I am trying it pursuade my husband into starting a blog. He is a race director for our local marathon and puts on several other events (triathlons, etc). We, too, get the same question : how do you make a living, etc.!! I want him to share his tips on how to organize races ( he gets numerous calls and everyone want advice) so a blog would be great.

Thanks so much and I LOVE Lisa’s site and always recommend to my friends who want to learn about real food!

Hi Jason, I am loving your blog. I been running my site for several years now and been able to make enough on adsense to also leave corporate. However I have been faking the funk all these years when it comes advertising. I have learned more on your site in one day than I ever learn from any book. Your site is a wonderful resource with a wealth of information. Thank you.

On to my questions. What is your views on native advertising and networks like taboola, outbrain, gumgum, and sharethrough? Do you use any of these? If so, are you seeing any revenue? Do you know of any other platforms simular to these worth checking out?

Is there a way to hire someone to help you set all this up? I noticed you mentioned in a comment that you can hire web developers? I have had a hard time finding someone who can work with me to set my blog up in the ways you have addressed. I am extremely bad with the tech side of blogging even though I have been blogging for 5 years and do have a good level of readers. I just cannot for the life of me figure the rest out and aside from blog design I don’t see how to hire someone to help with it. Thanks!

[…] husband Jason’s blog which gives insight into how they make money on their real food site. According to his report, they do make a full-time income blogging and about 23% of that comes from affiliate sales (mostly […]

[…] husband Jason’s blog which gives insight into how they make money on their real food site. According to his report, they do make a full-time income blogging and about 23% of that comes from affiliate sales (mostly […]

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